Monday, November 30, 2015

I had a small "moment" the other day when I realized that Gracelyn will be a year old next month. She's still my tiny tot! How can she be a year old already!?

Sleeping: Towards the end of October I decided that I was tired of doing a 10:30 PM feeding so I stopped. I knew you weren't nursing much at that time, that it was just more of a habit then anything so I decided to end it. For a couple of days you would wake up at some un-Godly hour, but that has evened out and "typically" you will sleep until 7 AM without problem. Thank you. That's all I can say. We're continuing with two naps - morning nap around 9:30 and an afternoon nap around 1:30/2:00. The afternoon nap is what I like to refer to as #naptimehustle. You've never seen me in such a flurry of activity. Because I know once you wake up, everyone is *mildly* spastic until suppertime and dad gets home.

Eating: We are progressing to bits and pieces of everything. It appears that you love saltier foods, which I find odd. Just today you had part of a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. You ate it like a champ! But when you are done, you are DONE. You drop pieces off the side of your chair like they don't exist and like no one will notice if they're out of sight. But you are doing a better job of feeding yourself and that's great. We'll do a breakfast of something easy (graham crackers, etc) and a lunch of whatever leftover we're dining on. You seem to LOVE scrambled eggs and weird stuff like meatballs. It's very odd. But you'll eat anything off a spoon that's been pureed. You get prunes every other day and that's seemed to ease our poop disfunction.

Wearing: 9 month clothing. I pulled out all this winter 12 month clothing the other day and I have no idea if you'll actually wear it. At 10 months old you wore the same Halloween costume that Lucan wore at 4 months. That's a comparison! Socks continue to be your nemesis. And my nemesis for that matter too. You always are pulling off your socks and crawling around the house with one sock on. As a result, I have sixteen single socks. No pairs. You are starting to pull on your headbands a bit more too. But because you don't have enough hair for people to automatically assume "female" and because I don't dress you solely in pink, headbands are good when we're out in public.

Playtime: Playing with electrical outlets. You are obsessed. This month you also developed your need for a lovey, which is the brown tag blanket I made for Lucan. You have your favorite ribbons and your fingers will follow all around the edge of the blanket until you find the one you love best. You also enjoy taking things out of containers (ie: Lucan's Halloween pumpkin with the candy or his tool box). I enjoy putting all the toys back in their respective containers. NOT.

Milestones:

Social: Your voice is growing louder and more active. When you want something and are not getting it or if you think you are being ignored, you lift your voice to be heard. You are interested in the world around you and will investigate your limits if we aren't paying attention.

Teeth: your first tooth on the top is coming in! You have 2.5 teeth and are drooling like crazy. You have another half tooth starting on the top.

Physical: crawling really well with a little butt wiggle. You also pull yourself up to your knees to see what's going on around you. You did start to feed yourself, but with that also comes with increased food pickiness which is not cool. You enjoy dumping over the cat's water dish, much the same as Lucan. It's the cleanest spot in our whole house.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

This month, by far, has to have been the easiest months to list things I have been thankful for!

1. The privilege and absolute delight of attending City Moms Blog Network's Sister Site Conference in Dallas. Not only was I kid free, the conference all spoke to all of my love languages: cool free stuff, awesome food but quality time with quality people. It was fantastic and one of the highlights of 2015.
2. Family helpers. My MIL came and helped with the kiddos the 2.5 days I was gone and my parents came and helped later in the month so Lance and I could go to another ISU football game.
3. Cooler fall temps.
4. Leaf walks with the kiddos.
5. Lucan got really good reports at his preschool parent-teacher conferences. His teacher is really sweet and like a fun grandma-type of lady. You can really tell she loves each of her students.
6. Pregnancy announcements in the form of answered prayers.
7. Glittery leaf decorations from Target.
8. Honeycrisp apples.
9. Seeing baby Gracie start to feed herself. Another question I'll be able to check off her well-child visit.
10. Apple crisp.
11. Watching my favorite trees turn red and orange.
12. Sleeping in.
13. Discovering the Jamie Ivey podcast. If you like girl talk, books and hearing about your favorite bloggers, this podcast is for you. I'm looking at you Andrea C. and Ally V.I.
14. Precious babies being born.
15. The book of Joshua. I'm in a Tuesday morning Bible study and while it's not exactly what I expected, it's exactly what I need. God has a way of working like that.
16. Wednesdays with friends. Wednesdays is no-preschool day so I'm always making a point to do something with a friend. It's good, but busy.
17. Trunk or treat.
18. Adorable kids in their adorable costumes. Mine included.

19. Reeses Peanut Butter pumpkins. Not the orange/white chocolate ones. Those are gross imposters.
20. Having family photos done. While it's always slightly stressful, it's always worth the stress for the memories captured.
21. Pumpkin sugar cookies. Not the best use of my precious nap time minutes, but delicious.
22. Having the wisdom of being the second-time mom. First-time mom Kara is slightly appalled at the things she's letting her second born get away with.
23. Discovering that I can reserve specific magazines (HGTV November 2015) at the library.
24. Hearing Lucan pray, unprompted and on his own before lunch.
25. Krispie Kream doughnuts.
26. WINNING a LilyJade bag.
27. Tailgating with friends.